Osbourne split rumors, the Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne split rumors that bubbled up over the weekend and on Monday were painting anything but a clear picture of this nearly 31-year-old marriage.

Son Jack Osbourne, however, was doing his part to unmuddy the waters. First, the rumors ... Sharon was caught on camera "moving into a new home" recently, according to the Daily Mail, which noted the activity took place just days before "The Talk" host was photographed sans wedding ring at a lunch date with daughter Kelly. The London paper showed photos of the redhead looking "downcast" — or perhaps just looking down at the ground as she busied herself around a moving van.

Britain's Daily Mirror produced the same pictures but emphasized the financial twist, saying as the Mail had that the couple had broken up over financial woes, including a large tax bill.

So now we compare the pics and that info with what TMZ said Monday (while alleging there are no plans for a divorce): Sharon is supposedly living at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the website reported, while Ozzy is allegedly holed up in a rental property several miles from the hotel. The site acknowledged previous reports that the two had been living apart while their Beverly Hills home was renovated.

All of which makes us wonder whose place Sharon was supposedly moving that furniture into. Last time we checked, hotel rooms came with furniture, so maybe she was dropping stuff off at Ozzy's new place? And the rocker won't be anywhere near Beverly Hills in a few days: He kicks off a world tour starting in New Zealand on Saturday.

Though Mom, Dad and Kelly were mum on social media and Sharon's rep didn't respond immediately to a request for comment, son Jack took to Twitter on Sunday to dismiss the rumors as a bunch of bull.

"Last time I check a lot of British news papers weren't amazing sources of accurate information. Moving on...," he wrote.

Jessica Simpson recently bought the Osbournes' Hidden Hills estate for $11.5 million, according to The Times' Hot Property column. They'd been trying to ditch that property since June 2011, the Hollywood Reporter said, noting that they'd also gotten rid of a Malibu home last April.

When the Osbournes shared news of a fire started by a candle at their home in mid-January, they were living in Beverly Hills.

When there's more than rumor to report, we'll let you know. Said LA TIMES

Rebekah Brooks, the former tabloid
editor who faces trial later this year, soaks up the sun in Australia on
a luxury yacht with her husband Charlie.The couple, guests of Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan and his wife Sarah, cruised round Sydney Harbour.Mrs Brooks, 44, looked pale but relaxed as she sipped beer and enjoyed a meal on the boat with her companions.

Away from it all: Sarah Murdoch and husband
Lachlan are joined by Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, and their children,
for a cruise around Sydney Harbour

Tough year ahead: Rebekah and Charlie Brooks
managed to look relaxed while they paddled in a dinghy despite the
forthcoming trial

Both couples and their children took a
four-hour trip aboard the 70ft Aquabay. Mr and Mrs Brooks also went out
in a dinghy for a paddle.

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Brooks edited the News of the World from
2000 to 2003 before moving to edit The Sun and then becoming chief
executive officer of the two papers’ parent group News International.She will appear in court
later this year over alleged illegal payments to public officials.In a separate case, she and Mr Brooks, 50, from Churchill, Oxfordshire, are accused of perverting the course of justice.Almost 200 Scotland Yard detectives are working on the three investigations linked to phone hacking.

Rarely seen: Lachlan Murdoch and his wife Sarah O'Hare joined the cruise

In court: Brooks, 44, ex-editor of The Sun and News of the World, and David Cameron’s former spin doctor
Coulson will face trial in September next year

The BBC is setting aside a staggering
£10 million to cover the cost of the three inquiries set up following
the Jimmy Savile scandal.Lawyers’
fees will account for most of the final bill but details released under
the Freedom of Information Act show that a public relations firm, a
corporate investigations company and a transcribing service, which
charges almost £1,000 a day, are also involved. The Pollard Review, chaired by ex-Sky News chief Nick Pollard, examined why Newsnight’s Savile investigation in 2011 was axed. It reported last December, when acting director-general Tim Davie claimed it would cost £2 million. The
two other inquiries are looking at the Corporation’s culture and
practices during Savile’s career, and past sexual harassment claims. The
BBC said: ‘It has already been stated that the overall cost of the
Pollard inquiry is likely to be approximately £2 million. ‘We will be publishing details of the costs once figures are finalised.’Nineteen
witnesses, including ex-BBC director-general George Entwistle, were
allowed up to £50,000 of legal advice for the Pollard Review.News
of the potential cost of the inquiries comes a day after it was
revealed the company behind a security debacle at last summer's London
Olympics has been drafted in to help detectives investigating the Jimmy
Savile sex scandal.G4S, the firm that could only partly
fulfill its contract to supply security guards at the Games, will
reportedly make £250,000 to hire staff to assist police dealing with
'unprecedented workloads' as a result of Operation Yewtree.

Reinforcements: The Government had to draft in
additional security helpers from the Armed Forces after G4S failed to
fulfill its contract for the Olympic Games

Ready for action: An extra 1,200 troops had to be put on standby during the London Games last summer

Around 20 extra staff are said to be starting 'imminently' to help with the inquiry.Reed Specialist Recruitment are believed to be recruiting retired detectives from the G4S Policing Solutions arm. A
statement issued by the Metropolitan Police said: 'We can confirm
SC&O5 are to take on a number of external individuals via Reed
Specialist Recruitment to assist with a wide range of work across the
command. 'This is in line
with the policy of the organisation whereby we may call upon the
experience of appropriate external parties to assist with cases where
unique and specialist knowledge can enhance the investigation. 'Individuals
are selected by the employment agency Reed Specialist Recruitment who
hold the contract for the supply of all temporary agency workers.

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'Due
to the unprecedented current workloads of the command created as a
result of the Jimmy Saville inquiry, there is a need to take on
additional staff. 'According
to the Met, the hired staff will be undertaking a variety of roles and
will be security checked before being put forward for roles.There are currently 30 police officers working in the SC&O5 unit working on Operation Yewtree.

Loss: The company was reportedly at a loss of around £70million following the Olympics security debacle

G4S
hit the headlines after failing to fulfill its £240million contract
with Locog to provide 10,400 security guards at the Olympic Park and
other venues.The company's failure forced the Government to draft in members of the Armed Forces to help cover gaps.Both chief Operating Officer David
Taylor-Smith and head of global events Ian Horseman Sewell resigned in
the wake of the shambles.G4S is said to have made a loss of around £70million as a result of the fiasco

The Duke of York has risked a new
diplomatic row after he claimed to be ‘representing Britain’ at a
lavish dinner hosted by a brutal dictator.Nearly
two years after being forced to step down as an official UK trade
envoy, Prince Andrew was pictured at a summit in the former Soviet
republic of Azerbaijan, mingling with prime ministers, politicians,
bankers and oil executives.During
last week’s event, he gave his views on the economic prospects for
central Asia – despite having no authority to do so officially.MPs
and human rights groups also criticised his appearance as guest of
honour at the table of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, whose corrupt
regime is accused of imprisoning opponents, torturing dissidents and
rigging elections.

The Duke gave a short speech in which he claimed to be 'representing Britain's at the World Economic Forum's meeting

In a short speech after the
dinner, Andrew told guests: ‘Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, while
you enjoy your evening, I have no one to represent, except the UK.’Buckingham
Palace last night strongly defended the Prince, saying he was there to
promote UK trade interests, particularly in the oil business.

More...

Arsonists target school hours after visit by Duchess of Cambridge is announced, causing £46,000 of damage

Extra
police called in to monitor anti-Thatcher 'celebrations' in Trafalgar
Square as hundreds of protesters gather despite wet weather

It is the tenth time in seven
years that the Duke – nicknamed ‘Airmiles Andy’ because of his penchant
for luxury air travel – has met Aliyev. In 2011, figures revealed that
in his previous decade as trade ambassador, Andrew had cost the taxpayer
nearly £4 million on 76 foreign trips, not including the cost of police
bodyguards.In 2009 The
Mail on Sunday told how Andrew spent £60,000 of public money to charter a
private jet for a three-day visit to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.Concerns
over the Prince’s friendship with Aliyev was one of the reasons he was
forced to step down as a UK trade envoy in July 2011. Another was the
controversy surrounding his friendship with US financier Jeffrey
Epstein, a sex offender.

Prince Andrew (far right) at the dinner hosted
by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev (third from left), has been
criticised for his attendance

But since then, the Duke appears to have been carrying on with the job regardless.Last
night a Whitehall source said: ‘The Government was aware of his private
trip, but he was certainly not representing Britain. If that’s what he
said, it’s a question for Buckingham Palace.’The
Palace described last week’s two-day trip to the World Economic Forum’s
meeting in Baku as ‘privately funded’ but refused to confirm if
President Aliyev had contributed towards the travel or hotel costs.During
the six-course dinner at the five-star Four Seasons Hotel, the Prince
sat next to Aliyev’s daughter Arzu, 24, and one seat away from her
mother. Last night, MPs and
human rights groups criticised Andrew’s presence alongside Aliyev at a
time when the President is accused of ratcheting up pressure on his
opponents.Max Tucker,
Amnesty International’s Azerbaijan expert, said: ‘Andrew’s cosy dinner
with President Aliyev is incredibly badly timed. In the past couple of
months the regime has stepped up its clampdown on free expression ahead
of October’s presidential elections. We urge the Duke of York to make
clear to Aliyev that this wave of arrests must stop.’

Labour MP Paul Flynn tabled an early day motion
last November asking why the Prince had visited the ¿loathsome,
anti-democratic, election-rigging President Aliyev', who rules
Azerbaijan (pictured)

Labour MP Paul Flynn, who tabled an
early day motion last November asking why the Prince had visited the
‘loathsome, anti-democratic, election-rigging President Aliyev’, added:
‘It is an absolute outrage that Andrew is using his Royal status in
order to prop up an odious leader who is oppressing his own people and
claiming to represent the UK.’But
Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs
Committee, said: ‘Andrew is doing a fantastic job. There is no better
person than a member of the Royal Family for building and maintaining
links with countries such as Azerbaijan and places like that will be
very important for us in the future.’ Supporters also pointed out that
the UK is Azerbaijan’s biggest foreign investor, mainly through BP,
which is extracting oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater-Gunashli
oilfield.The consortium
behind the assets – of which BP owns a third – has invested £22 billion
since it was set up in 1995, employing 2,700 people.Buckingham
Palace defended the Prince’s trip, saying: ‘The Duke continues to
support British businesses – Azerbaijan is BP’s largest single
investment globally.‘It is
because of this he was first asked by the Government to visit Azerbaijan
in 2005. The Duke has no personal business interests in Azerbaijan.’A
source close to the Prince added: ‘It is frustrating that Andrew does
not speak of the benefits which he has brought to Britain by going on
these trips abroad. It has brought in countless millions for Britain.’

Niagara County officials in western
New York are facing a lawsuit from the parents of Roger Dunn, who allege
that a coroner took a piece of his body for canine police-training
after he died last year.

Dunn, 32, was killed in an automobile accident in Cambria on April 13, 2012 according to the Associated Press.

His
body was transported to the office of Niagara County Coroner Russell
Jackman, but not before he provided some of Dunn's tissue to a volunteer
firefighter chief Vincent Salerno, who was trying to train a dog to
track human remains.

Dunn's parents allege in the suit that tissue
was taken from their son's body by the Cambria coroner and given to a
volunteer firefighter chief to train a dog to sniff human remains

The Dunn's have filed their lawsuit, which does
not specify damages, against the county coroner's office, the former
coroner Jackman, the former firefighter chief Salerno and the volunteer
fire department

Both Jackman and Salerno resigned and were charged with misdemeanors.

The
two were fined $1,000 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service
with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

They also had to write apology letters to Danny and Anita Dunn, the parents of Roger.

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The Dunns filed their lawsuit with Michael Dowd, an attorney from Lewiston, to the New York State Supreme Court against the coroner's office, Jackman, Salerno and the volunteer firefighter department.According to Dowd the two did not know the tissue had been removed from Roger's body until media reports surfaced.

The suit seeks compensation for emotional and physical damages but does not specify any amount.

As ever, it was Winston Churchill,
our greatest of wartime Prime Ministers, who put it best. ‘I am ready to
meet my Maker,’ he wrote, but ‘whether my Maker is prepared for the
great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.’ There
will be many who will be thinking that the sentiment could equally
apply to Lady Thatcher, albeit for different reasons. Her achievements
were primarily about economic policy, and therefore remain the object of
bitter controversy.But
while Wednesday’s funeral will be a solemn send-off for a Prime
Minister who we can at least all agree transformed Britain, rather than a
day of national mourning for the passing of a war hero, let us also
hope that the country is allowed to judge her on her actual
accomplishments, uncontaminated by her opponents’ propaganda.Judging by some of the recent
coverage, Thatcher’s enemies have successfully spread a series of
damaging myths about her. Many of these sound plausible, and are even
accepted by some of her supporters, but few stand up to proper scrutiny.Take
the myth that Thatcher was deeply unpopular. The truth is that she won
43.9 per cent of the vote in 1979, 42.4 per cent in 1983 and 42.2 per
cent in 1987 – landslide results of which contemporary politicians can
only dream.

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Extra
police called in to monitor anti-Thatcher 'celebrations' in Trafalgar
Square as hundreds of protesters gather despite wet weather

Banners,
chants and even a conga: Liverpool fans dance on the grave of Baroness
Thatcher at Reading as Hillsborough victims are remembered

MOS COMMENT: Let us honour a true giant of British history and respect that Thatcher was a great national leader

Yet
her defeated opponents, such as Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock, are
rarely described as ‘divisive’ or ‘toxic’, even though they were routed
on Election night and were demonstrably far less popular.Today,
Thatcher’s opinion polls are even more spectacular. YouGov finds that
she is deemed the greatest post-1945 Prime Minister, and that 52 per
cent of the public believe she was a great or a good PM. Yes, many
hated her – often with an intensity that defies rational analysis – but
many loved her.

Extra police were called in to monitor the protest after the number of protesters grew, according to reports

Protesters, campaigners and activists gather in Trafalgar Square to celebrate the passing of Baroness Thatcher

It has also become fashionable
to blame one of her greatest triumphs – the sale of council homes to
tenants – for today’s horrendous housing crisis and long waiting lists. Britain’s
social housing sector was almost Soviet in size before Thatcher’s
right-to-buy scheme was introduced, accounting for a third of all homes.
Yet today, even after the sell-offs, it is a little-known fact that it
remains much larger than in most other countries – worth up to a fifth
of the total. That’s more than Denmark, Sweden, France, Finland,
Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia, Germany and Italy.Yet
these countries clearly do not all suffer from the same problems that
we do. There is no reason why the State should own the homes in which
it houses the poor. The UK’s insufficient supply of homes is directly
attributable to the fact that the Thatcherite revolution sadly left
untouched the post-1945 planning system, one of Britain’s last bastions
of socialist thinking.We
need the private sector to build more homes to make sure there are
enough for everybody, at affordable prices, not hark back to a dystopian
vision of the government as a super-landlord.Modern
anti-Thatcherites tend to dislike coal mining for environmental
reasons. But that doesn’t prevent them from hypocritically pinning the
demise of a once great industry on her policies.

Preparations are underway near St Paul's Cathedral ahead of the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday

That, too, is nonsense: the
industry had been in crisis for decades, crippled by excessive costs and
international competition. Far more miners lost their jobs in the
Sixties than in the Eighties. No government, be it Labour or Tory, could
afford to keep propping up unviable mines indefinitely.The
slow demise of coal mining has been a tragedy for many communities, and
the cause of much suffering. But more mines were closed during Harold
Wilson’s two terms in office than in Thatcher’s three – and yet he
remains a Left-wing hero.What her detractors still cannot accept is that Thatcher’s supply-side reforms may have been painful but they worked.Tax
cuts encouraged work, reduced inflation and made it easier for
business, and a new generation of entrepreneurs began to create jobs.
The UK soon started to close the gap with the US and eventually overtook
France and Germany in terms of national income per person.

A reveller dances while wearing a mask of the former Prime Minister during the protest in Trafalgar Square

Our economy grew by 2.07 per
cent annually in the Seventies and 3.09 per cent in the Eighties, before
expanding by 2.77 per cent in the Nineties (when Thatcher’s legacy
remained largely intact) and by 1.77 per cent in the 2000s, when it was
wrecked by Gordon Brown. Manufacturing production rose 7.5 per cent
during her time in office (demolishing the myth that she destroyed
British industry), while services boomed. Of
course, manufacturing’s relative importance declined – but the same
shift happened in every developed economy. Partly because of the credit
crunch, manufacturing output performed far worse during the Blair-Brown
years, ending slightly below the levels seen at the end of Thatcher’s
time in office.Britian's
economic rebirth was fuelled by spending restraint and mass
privatisations. Total expenditure rose modestly in real terms, partly
because of higher spending on the NHS, but the rate of increase was kept
below that of the economy, ensuring that the State’s overall grip was
substantially loosened.Public
spending fell from 44.6 per cent of national income in 1979-1980 to
39.4 per cent in 1990-91. Entire chunks of the economy – including
British Telecom and BP – were moved into the private sector,
transforming loss-making bureaucracies into world-class firms.The
real extent of the fall in public spending under Thatcher is masked by
the recession of the early Eighties as the UK was weaned from sky-high
inflation. Spending rose to a peak of 48.2 per cent of national income
by 1982-83, the economy battered by soaring unemployment, before
embarking on a dramatic decline. The
peak-to-trough reduction in spending was a remarkable 8.8 per cent of
national income, though this was exaggerated in the last couple of years
by Lord Lawson’s cheap money bubble.Another
reason for the rebound was that tax rates were slashed. Some point to
the fact that total receipts increased from 33.7 per cent of national
income in 1979-80 to 34.9 per cent as proof that she wasn’t a real
tax-cutter. That is nonsense. She raised value-added tax, but her
massive cuts to income and corporation tax were hugely significant.The increase in the tax take was caused primarily by the rebound in economic growth.Thatcher
made many mistakes, of course, but most of her critics’ arguments have
little basis in fact. She saved the economy and country from terminal
decline and transformed British society for the better.She was a truly great Prime Minister, the peacetime equivalent of a Churchill. If there is any justice, that will be her epitaph.

England footballers Rio Ferdinand and
John Terry are among hundreds of Britons who face losing millions of
pounds after investing in a holiday villa project in Morocco.They
and other star players, including Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and
football pundit Gary Neville, ploughed money into the £200million
project believing they would now have the keys to stylish beachside
homes – but nothing has been built at the site for four years.What
they were assured would be a luxury resort featuring 1,342 properties,
three golf courses and a sports complex is today an abandoned building
site. Investors fear there is little prospect of it ever being
completed.And to the
embarrassment of the players, many British investors were won over by
promotional work they did in return for discounted properties at Le
Jardin de Fleur in Saidia.Trevor
Cockrell, 55, a semi-retired textile importer from Bolton, faces losing
his deposit on a two-bedroom apartment at the resort in Morocco’s
Berkane region.He said: ‘A
lot of investors are going to be disappointed. At first, everything was
fine – we were given flashy promotional material about footballers
investing and we thought if they were part of it, it must be a good
idea.‘But now we’ve
accepted it will not get off the ground. It’s all right for the
footballers because it is just a drop in the ocean for them, but this is
going to hit many others hard. Nothing has happened at the site for
years.’In 2006, developers Property Logic
collected €60million (about £40million at the time) in deposits from
investors who each paid at least €30,000 (£20,000) on properties worth
up to £1million.

The dream: An artist's impression of one of the luxury villas that the athletes invested in

The reality: Work has ground to a halt at Le Jardin de Fleur in Saidia, leaving some British investors disgruntled

Almost all of the 480 buyers
are British, and include at least 25 footballers. The stars invested in
an exclusive area of the resort called Le Village des Amis.

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By 2007 the company had
completed basic works but, despite promises it would be finished by
2010, work stopped in 2009 after the funding parties went bankrupt and
the developer has since struggled to find finance. Suzanne
Campbell, a design consultant from London, who runs an internet forum
for the disgruntled British investors, said: ‘I have no idea what’s
going to happen. ‘Some members of the forum have gone
ahead with legal action and we may consider lobbying the Moroccan
government for help. I should have been out there three years ago.’

This Le Jardin De Fleur development in Morocco newsletter shows support from John Terry, Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand

Manchester United defender
Ferdinand, who appears in a sales brochure photo alongside Neville and
Terry, paid deposits on a three-bedroom townhouse and three villas worth
a total of £2million. He
is quoted in the brochure as saying: ‘I plan to have a holiday once or
twice a year here with the family. When I saw the plans I liked the fact
there were plenty of quality shops, restaurants and cafes nearby. I was
also impressed it’s a gated community with good security.’Sean
Cusack, a director at Property Logic, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We
appreciate the development should have been ready years ago but no one
was able to predict the financial crisis. ‘Some
investors have become tetchy and at the moment we haven’t been able to
find financiers. However, we are in discussions and are hopeful the
people who still want their apartments will get them.‘The footballers have been patient. They know we’re not responsible for the recession.’

The architect of David Cameron’s
policy on gay marriage is leaving Downing Street after losing a power
battle with the Prime Minister’s new Election supremo.Andrew
Cooper, Mr Cameron’s personal polling guru and a key modernising figure
at No 10, is returning to his private business after being usurped by
outspoken Australian ‘fixer’ Lynton Crosby.Mr
Cooper, who became Director of Government Strategy two years ago, is a
former member of the now defunct Social Democratic Party and lobbied Mr
Cameron to ditch traditional Right-wing Tory values and policies on
Europe, tax and crime in a bid to ‘detoxify’ the Conservatives’ ‘Nasty
Party’ image.In
contrast, Mr Crosby, who took charge of the Tory campaign machine in
January on a £200,000-a-year deal, specialises in ‘dog whistle’ tactics –
subtle appeals to voters’ underlying prejudices over issues such as
immigration – which are designed to appeal to core Conservative voters.Defiant Mr Crosby denies using ‘dog-whistle’ tactics to send surreptitious messages, saying: ‘It was more like a foghorn.’ He is understood to have been critical of Mr Cameron’s policy on gay marriage for alienating grassroots supporters.Mr
Cooper, co-founder of the Populus polling company, helped persuade Mr
Cameron that while gay marriage would lose votes among older party
supporters in safe seats, more importantly it would attract votes in
marginal constituencies.When
Mr Crosby’s appointment was announced, Mr Cooper denied threatening to
resign. However, he is to leave his Downing Street post to return to
Populus, though he is expected to do some part-time work for Tory HQ.

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Shapps' office under fire over online trickery 'sham' which used models
to make Tory activists look 'youthful and in touch with Britain'

Last night, a Tory source
said: ‘There was never going to be room for both Andrew and Lynton.
Andrew is a fully paid-up Conservative moderniser and believes that the
party will never win a governing majority again unless it distances
itself from its Thatcherite past. Lynton is an old-fashioned Thatcherite
who thinks traditional values and policies are more important than
modern fads.’

Mr Cooper’s critics claim he
places too much reliance on New Labour-style focus groups. His
supporters say the same techniques helped Tony Blair win three elections
and insist it is ‘totally unfair’ to blame him for the so-called
‘omnishambles’ – the series of U-turns – which followed last year’s
chaotic Budget.

Mr Cooper warned Mr Cameron that it
would be ‘toxic’ to cut the top rate of income tax from 50p to 40p,
following focus group findings that the Prime Minister and his
Chancellor were seen as ‘posh’ and ‘out of touch’ characters from TV
period drama Downton Abbey.In the end, the Government compromised by cutting it to 45p.Mr
Crosby was dubbed The Wizard of Oz after winning four terms for former
Australian PM John Howard and is billed as one of the most brilliant,
though provocative, strategists of his generation. In
one notorious campaign ploy in 2001, he seized on the news that a
refugee ship, packed with Afghan asylum seekers, had entered Australian
waters.Mr Howard, on
Mr Crosby’s advice, refused the passengers entry amid claims that they
were trying to blackmail their way in by throwing children overboard.The
allegations turned out to be false but the controversy boosted Mr
Howard’s ratings and he gained more credit when, shortly afterwards,
Islamic extremists attacked America on 9/11.Four
years later, Mr Crosby had moved to Britain to advise Michael Howard,
whose 2005 General Election campaign was noted for highlighting
immigration. Although Mr Howard was beaten by Mr Blair, Mr Crosby was
credited for avoiding a third landslide defeat.He
went on to mastermind Boris Johnson’s two victories in the London
mayoral elections and Mr Johnson urged Mr Cameron to do ‘whatever it
takes’ to hire Mr Crosby to run the Tories’ 2015 Election campaign.
‘Push the boat out, break the piggy bank, kill the fatted calf,’ said
the Mayor.However, not
all of Mr Johnson’s advisers were so impressed. The Mail on Sunday
revealed last year how some were shocked when Mr Crosby said Mr Johnson
should stop focusing on ‘f***ing Muslims’.

Shift: Lynton Crosby wants David Cameron, left, to focus on traditional values like Margaret Thatcher, right

Admirers have hailed his
appointment to Mr Cameron’s team for bringing ‘discipline, clarity,
toughness and populism’ to Conservative HQ.However,
the party’s former Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft, a long-standing
political and business rival of the Australian, said Mr Cameron had made
a mistake and called Mr Crosby ‘a distracting influence’.A
No 10 source played down Mr Cooper’s resignation and said: ‘Andrew
always planned to return to his business around this time and will carry
on doing some work for the Conservative Party.’

Embattled Police and Crime
Commissioner Ann Barnes is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on
staff and personal advertising campaigns – despite describing her job as
a ‘wilful waste of public money’.A
week after being humiliated following the resignation of Paris Brown,
her £15,000-a-year youth crime tsar, who posted a series of racist and
foul-mouthed Twitter rants, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal
that Mrs Barnes is using a further £90,000 of taxpayer funds to hire a
chief of staff.The
development comes just months after the 67-year-old recruited two
special advisers on £5,900-a-month salaries, as well as paying a former
Police Authority colleague £300 a day to advise her.

More trouble ahead: Ann Barnes is facing calls to quit after losing the confidence of her officers

She has spent a further £15,000
on a battle bus which she has dubbed ‘Ann Force One’. Her 30-page
budget plan includes 16 photos of herself.Mrs
Barnes, who from June 2005 served as chairman of the Kent Police
Authority, the precursor organisation to the office of Police and Crime
Commissioner, was paid £20,000 a year and claimed about £4,000 in
expenses in her old role. But she enjoyed a £65,000 pay rise after
taking on her new position last November, despite being elected by just
one in ten local people on a turnout of 16 per cent.Within
weeks of starting the job she was forced to defend her decision not to
advertise for new staff and instead make her own swift appointments,
saying: ‘This is not about appointing friends but those with new and
different skills.’Mrs
Barnes was facing further calls to quit last night amid claims that she
had lost the confidence of the electorate and frontline officers. The
former magistrate, who has also been deputy chairman of the National
Association of Police Authorities and advised the Home Secretary on the
appointment of senior officers, previously said the role of PCCs were
‘unnecessary’. Before
performing a U-turn and deciding to stand for election last year, she
said: ‘They will have no different or additional powers from the current
police authorities and are a wilful waste of public money.’

Resignation: Paris Brown, 17, pictured with Kent Police and Crime
Commissioner Ann Barnes tells a press conference she is not taking
up her £15,000-a-year role

Last
night a Facebook page used by frontline officers was filled with
outraged comments. One post on the Kent Police Federation Facebook page
read: ‘Utterly incredible. I never thought that such a huge gravy train
would follow with all that officers are struggling with. How on earth is
this equitable and fair?’The
Mail on Sunday revealed last week how 17-year-old Paris Brown, the
latest recruit to Mrs Barnes’s staff, was behind a series of
foul-mouthed, racist and obscene rants posted on Twitter.The
teenager, who beat 164 other applicants for the role of Britain’s first
Youth Police and Crime Commissioner, was forced to quit her
taxpayer-funded post within a week following the decision by Kent Police
to investigate her over possible hate crimes.The
scandal has not deterred other PCCs from considering youth advisers.
Sue Mountstevens in Avon and Somerset has advertised for a ‘youth
champion and health and wellbeing officer’ who will be paid up to
£40,000 a year.

Contrite: Paris Brown, 17, said she was 'truly
sorry for any offence' after Tweeting about her sex life, drinking
binges and drugs

Matthew Grove, the Conservative PCC for Humberside, said last week he wanted to appoint four unpaid ‘youth ambassadors’. Mrs
Barnes chose to stand by Miss Brown despite evidence showing that Miss
Brown railed against gay people, immigrants and travellers, while also
glorifying drug-taking and violence. All the offensive Twitter posts were made in the six months leading up to her appointment. Despite
employing three communications officers – including one in charge of
digital communications – Mrs Barnes admitted that none of her staff
thought to ask Miss Brown whether she had a profile on any social media
websites or had said anything that could embarrass the force. Elsewhere,
a rising chorus of voices called on Mrs Barnes to quit. Louise Mensch,
the former Tory MP, wrote on Twitter: ‘Barnes must go. Ann Barnes showed
total immaturity by appointing a 17-year-old to a serious job and not
checking her social media. First thing you check.’Barrister
and former Conservative MP Jerry Hayes said: ‘She just showed a total
lack of judgment, which is rather worrying given she’s in charge of
governing the police. She’s very much on probation.’Last
night Mrs Barnes, who has lived in Lyminge, near Folkestone, Kent, for
more than 30 years with her husband Tony, a vet, remained defiant and
said she would keep to her manifesto pledge and appoint another youth
PCC.However, the role
is to come under further scrutiny after it emerged that Kent Police
already has a focus group of 11 to 16-year-olds available for gathering
opinions that affect young people in the county.In
a statement to The Mail on Sunday Mrs Barnes, a former teacher from
Merseyside, admitted that she had no idea how much taxpayers’ money had
been spent on her disastrous bid to employ a youth tsar.She said: ‘I will publish the estimated cost when my staff have researched the figures.’

A new TV cookery show is in the works
which aims to feed on the current popularity for all things
post-apocalyptic - including The Walking Dead - and the growing
‘prepper’ movement readying itself for the end of civilization as we
know it.According to
advertisements placed on the Reality Wanted website, a ‘major TV
network’ has decided the time is right for an experimental cooking
challenge show featuring contestants making ‘unexpectedly delicious’
meals from whatever is close at hand rather than worrying about what is
currently in season or what has been sourced locally.TV
production company Schweet Entertainment is looking for chefs to
compete in ‘post-apocalyptic cooking challenge scenarios’ that will
include using whatever is available to whip up a tasty meal without
electricity or a fully stocked grocery store to help you out.

An experimental new cooking challenge show is in
the works that will feature contestants making delicious meals from
whatever they can find in post-apocalyptic scenarios

The new show will challenge chefs to create something tasty when there is nearly nothing available to cook

‘Are you willing to take on a
challenge scenario where there's nearly nothing available to cook with
and make the tastiest meal possible?,’ reads their ad.‘Can
you take a few cans of food, a box of jello, a jar of beans, a car
windshield to fashion a solar cooker, and create something unexpectedly
delicious? New fun, extreme cooking challenge series will put chefs and
survivalists to the test to stretch the bounds of their creativity to
whole new levels.’

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on Google Earth: Does this shocking satellite image show a brutal
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Mayans were wiped out by drought, say scientists after tests on temple beam confirm accuracy of ancient calendar

The show promises to feature restaurant chefs facing-off in post-apocalyptic cooking challenge scenarios, reports Eater.The
same company is also seeking a survivalist expert to host the show and
guide competitors on how best to track down food and water sources in
post-apocalyptic scenarios.

Hungry for more: Zombie-apocalypse show The Walking Dead is one of the most successful drama series in cable TV history

‘This fun, extreme cooking
challenge series will teach the public a wide range of survival skills
and showcase highly-creative methods of creating gourmet meals from the
most limited of resources,’ the ad continues.One
of chief inspirations for the show is undoubtedly the runaway success
of zombie-apocalypse series The Walking Dead, which managed to draw in
12.4 million viewers for the finale of its third series at the end of
last month.'The Walking Dead'
averages seven million U.S. viewers ages 18 to 49, making it the top-rated
drama for that demographic in cable history, according to AMC. The hit zombie-themed television series has already helped turn the small town Senoia, 25 miles south of Atlanta, into a
thriving tourist attraction. For the show's third season the Senoia was transformed into
the fictional town of Woodbury.

Once a quiet little town, Senoia, has seen a tourist boom since fans of 'The Walking Dead' began visiting

The zombie drama has become a cultural phenomenon and one of cable television's top-rated dramas

Fans proved eager to get a behind-the-scenes look at filming in and
around Senoia, have been traveling to the area and have found a town that had stopped cutting the grass and weeding the
flower beds to foster an authentic post-apocalyptic setting, said Mayor
Robert Belisle.Stores displayed zombie-themed T-shirts next to baby
clothes and home decor items.
Georgia has enticed the film and TV industry to towns across the state
with generous tax incentives and dozens of direct flights each day
between Atlanta and Los Angeles, said Scott Tigchelaar, a developer and
president of Raleigh Studios - Atlanta, a film company whose 120-acre
property in Senoia serves as home base for the show's production.The state hosted 333 films, TV productions and music videos between
July 2011 and June 2012, generating nearly $880 million in direct
spending by the entertainment industry, according to the Georgia Film,
Music & Digital Entertainment Office.

With millions of tourists visiting the the small town, locals are even talking about building a five-star hotel

A store with Walking Dead merchandise is scheduled to open in Senoia later this year when production resumes on the show

Senoia is not paid for
the filming, leaving local leaders to find other ways to capitalize on
the spotlight while preserving the town's historic charm. The
downtown development authority installed sidewalk plaques to highlight
some of the two dozen movies and TV series that have filmed in Senoia,
including 'Fried Green Tomatoes', 'Sweet Home Alabama' and 'Drop Dead
Diva'. Tigchelaar, a Canada native whose development company has
restored much of the downtown, said he and his brother-in-law bought a
trolley to give tours of various film locations starting this spring.
A store with licensed merchandise for 'The Walking Dead' is set to open
when production resumes in May and, later this year, developers expect
to break ground on a boutique hotel. 'Ten years ago to talk about a four-star hotel in Senoia, people probably would have laughed me out of town,' Tigchelaar said

Victor Groves took the call at 5.43am
last Saturday. The time is important, because at that moment life as
they knew it stopped for Victor and his wife, Kate. Now their lives will
forever be defined by ‘before and after’ 5.43am — when they learned
that their daughter, Sarah, had been murdered while travelling in
Kashmir.They had
begged 24-year-old Sarah not to go to the region. Ownership of the
territory is under dispute by India and Pakistan, and the area has for
many years been targeted by terrorists and militants.So
fearful were Mr and Mrs Groves for their daughter’s safety that they
had booked a trip to Nepal, where they were planning to meet her at the
base camp of Mount Everest next Friday.Scroll down for video

Tragic: Sarah Groves, 24, from Guernsey, was found stabbed to death on a house boat in Dal Lake, in Srinigar, Kashmir

The trip was arranged
specifically to persuade Sarah to leave Kashmir, but tragically she died
before that planned reunion with her parents.As
well as being grief-stricken over her death, her parents have had to
endure the agonising and inevitable ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’.What if they’d flown out to Nepal two weeks earlier? If only they’d just got on a plane and dragged her away from there.Yet
it wasn’t an act of terrorism that led to her death, as they had so
feared, but a chance encounter with a deranged 7ft Dutchman by the name
of Richard de Wit.

More...

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Two days before the murder, De Wit, 43, booked onto the New Beauty houseboat on Dal Lake in Srinagar.Sarah
had been staying on the boat for a month with her new boyfriend, Saeed
Ahmed Shoda, whom she had met on her travels, and his family.

Confessed: Richard de Wit, 43 was arrested in connection with her murder

In the early hours of Saturday
morning, De Wit broke into Sarah’s room and stabbed her more than 40
times. He tried to flee, but was arrested by police hours later.Today
he remains in custody, but has not yet been formally charged with
murder. Police say he has confessed to the killing. Immediately after
his arrest, De Wit apparently told them ‘the Devil took hold of my
body’.But in a
dramatic development yesterday, police revealed that De Wit had bought
the knife with which he stabbed Sarah hours before the killing,
suggesting it was a premeditated act. It had initially been believed he
already had the knife in his possession when he arrived in Kashmir.The
Mail has established that De Wit bought a so-called ‘Rambo’ knife at
the Fayaz Hard Store in Srinagar. ‘The foreigner came into our shop and
asked for a knife,’ the shop owner told the Mail. ‘I had no idea why he
wanted a knife or what was his intention.’Ahfad
Ul Mujtaba, deputy inspector general of Kashmir Police, said: ‘Our
investigation team has found that the murder weapon — a 12in knife — was
not on Mr De Wit as he travelled into the state.‘He had, in fact, bought it from a shop in Srinagar. He revealed this information to my officers after continuing questioning. ‘It would now seem that Mr De Wit had prepared way in advance and had planned to kill the girl.’Certainly,
it is interesting to note that in his ‘possessed’ state after the
murder, De Wit had the presence of mind to grab his passport and stuff
£2,000 cash into his underwear before he fled the scene.This
week, those who knew Sarah spoke of her warmth, kindness and infectious
enthusiasm for life. To her friends, her violent death in a remote
corner of India is as incomprehensible as it is senseless and unjust.For
her parents, it is a catastrophe from which recovery is impossible.
This is Mr and Mrs Groves’s personal tragedy, but every parent who read
about their daughter’s murder in a far corner of the world will have
felt chilled.

Sorrow: Mr Groves and his son Ben wept as they speak of the devastating impact Miss Groves' murder has had on the family

Grief: Victor Groves, centre, father of murdered
backpacker Sarah Groves, is flanked by his sons Ben, right, and Tom at a
press conference where he described the dawn phone call which told him
his daughter was dead

The
story will have particular resonance for the parents of intrepid
middle-class girls yearning to explore the world on far-flung
adventures. Sarah was born in Manchester in 1988, moving to Guernsey when she was four with her parents. Both Mr and Mrs Groves have been married before and Mr Groves has two sons from his previous marriage. Mr
Groves, 70, was a successful businessman who owned a number of IT
companies. Sarah and her older half-brothers, Ben, 26, and Tom, 31, grew
up in a large manor house on the island.Sarah
was educated at two prestigious independent Catholic schools, first at
Blanchelande College in Guernsey, then as a boarder at the
£30,000-a-year St Mary’s College in Ascot, Berkshire.She
studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London before returning
to Guernsey, having decided to become a fitness instructor.After
qualifying, she worked for two years at the five-star Old Government
House Hotel, leaving last August after deciding to go travelling.In
October, she arrived in Tanzania, where she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro,
before flying to New Delhi in February this year. She was undeterred by
Foreign Office advice that women should use caution when travelling in
India; there have been a number of sexual attacks against British women
in the country including in Goa, where Sarah travelled after Delhi.

Crime scene: Journalists and policemen stand
outside the houseboat where Miss Groves was found dead on Saturday, on
the Dal Lake in Srinagar, India

‘She
was happy, but we were keen that she didn’t stay too long,’ Mr Groves
said this week at an anguished press conference in Guernsey.In
Goa, Sarah met Saeed Shoda, 25, a Kashmiri who was on holiday there.
They became besotted with each other, and Saeed invited her to stay on
his parents’ houseboat on Dal Lake. Sarah had been planning to go on to Sri Lanka, but was so taken with Saeed that she agreed to change her plans.Sarah’s
parents were besides themselves with worry when she told them she was
heading to Kashmir. What parent wouldn’t be concerned about their
daughter travelling to a place with such a troubled history, to stay
with a family they knew nothing about?‘We
tried so hard to stop her going,’ Mr Groves told the press conference.
‘It is nothing against the guy, but sadly she met someone and, instead
of going to Sri Lanka, she went north.’Sarah
travelled to Kashmir last month and moved onto the New Beauty
houseboat, which has a number of basic, furnished rooms for rent to
tourists.

Fought for her life: The body of Sarah Groves,
who was stabbed to death on a houseboat in Kashmir, India was
transferred to Delhi today after doctors revealed she fought valiantly
for her life

She seemed to
settle in well enough with Saeed’s family. She helped his mother,
Hafiza, paint the railings on the deck in preparation for the summer
visitors, calling her ‘mother’ in Kashmiri.She spoke to her parents nearly every day on the phone, but those conversations did not assuage their fears for their daughter.Victor
and Kate, 66, decided to book a trip to Nepal — and persuaded Sarah to
meet them there as a way of enticing her away from Kashmir.‘We
didn’t want to separate them [Sarah and Saeed] long-term, but Sarah
wanted to see so many places and she got caught up in something which
meant she only saw two places,’ Mr Groves told the press conference.He also spoke heart-rendingly of the close bond between Sarah and her mother. ‘The
relationship between Sarah and my wife, Kate, was always very, very
close. They made each other laugh all the time,’ he said.On Thursday of last week, De Wit turned up at Dal Lake and booked into the New Beauty houseboat. The
following day, Saeed left to visit friends for a couple of days. He
says he invited Sarah to go with him, but she chose to stay behind.Sarah and De Wit were the only guests on the houseboat, in a stroke of appalling bad luck for her.De Wit had been regarded as odd for a long time, but by now he was psychotic.In
the Nineties, he became a councillor for an extreme Right-wing party in
his home town of Ridderkerk. In 2000 he met his future wife, Uma
Rupanya, while on holiday in Thailand. They had two daughters before
marrying in November 2002.Over
the last two years or so, De Wit had been showing increasing signs of
paranoia. He was under psychiatric care and taking anti-psychotic
medication. Last October, he abandoned his wife and children to go
travelling. In a video posted on YouTube from Zurich in December last
year, De Wit said he had been receiving psychiatric treatment, but
believed his doctors had been acting on behalf of the security services
to spy on him and others.He
claimed to have been visited by intelligence agents who believed he was
a far-Right republican posing a threat to Queen Beatrix of the
Netherlands.De Wit was
quite clearly deranged, though whether his doctors made any attempts to
locate him after his disappearance is not known.This week, his wife said he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication and had begun smoking cannabis.

Love for life: Miss Groves' boyfriend, Saeed Ahmed Shoda, 26, says his life has been 'shut down' by her murder

Sarah was introduced to De Wit
on the Friday, when they had a brief chat. According to one local who
spoke to Saeed’s family, Sarah had borrowed the Dutchman’s camera and
put her memory card into it, although this has not been confirmed.Could
it be that this innocuous act fuelled the paranoid delusions in the
Dutchman’s mind, and he thought she was spying on him? What is known is that before he attacked Sarah, he had taken drugs — reportedly heroin or cannabis.On the Friday evening, Sarah shared a vegetable stew with the Shoda family in their corrugated hut beside the houseboat.It
seems Saeed’s mother was uneasy about Sarah staying alone on the
houseboat with De Wit, and asked if she wanted to spend the night in her
room. Sarah declined, saying she wanted to read her book.In
the early hours of the morning, she was disturbed by the Dutchman, who
forced open the door to her room armed with a 12in knife. Sarah suffered
45 wounds to her body, most of them defensive cuts as she bravely tried
to fight off her attacker. But she also received two fatal wounds, one
to her neck and another to a lung, and bled to death.

Anger: Miss Groves Kashmiri boyfriend Saeed
Ahmed Shoda told ITV Daybreak of the moment he came face to face with
her suspected killer as both faced questioning over her death at the
local police station

The Shoda family were woken by
screams and what sounded like an argument. Saeed’s brother and father
ran to investigate, and found Sarah lying in a pool of blood in her
room.Out on the river,
they saw De Wit rowing a boat towards the shore, but it capsized, and
he had to swim ashore. He flagged down a taxi but was arrested in
Qazigund, 50 miles away, still wet and wearing no shoes.Later,
Saeed’s mother discovered a missed call on her mobile from Sarah, who
had desperately phoned for help. A doctor from the post-mortem team who
examined Sarah’s body, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Mail
there was no sexual assault before she was killed.Hours after his daughter’s death, Mr Groves took that terrible call at his Guernsey home. ‘It
was dark, I didn’t know where the phone was, and I stumbled around to
pick it up,’ he said. ‘Someone with an Indian accent said: “Mr Groves,
your daughter is dead, she has been murdered.”‘I
didn’t know if it was genuine, and rather suspected it wasn’t, but the
person on the other end of the phone seemed to know a lot about the
situation.‘I immediately called Guernsey Police, who confirmed two hours later that it was genuine.’The
Groves’s beautiful daughter had been taken from them in the most
traumatic circumstances imaginable. On Tuesday, Sarah’s body was taken
to Delhi and it is believed — though not confirmed — that it was
repatriated to Britain later in the week. In
July 2012, Sarah had posted a message on Facebook that turned out to be
tragically prophetic, in which she wrote: ‘Quit your job, buy a ticket,
get a tan, fall in love, never return.’Over
the past week, her parents and brothers have managed to find some
strength from the overwhelming support they have received from Sarah’s
friends, and from many more people who did not know her.She was a young woman adored by everyone, and those who knew her feel the loss acutely — none more than her grieving parents.At
the press conference earlier this week, Mr Groves, hunched over a desk,
was a broken figure. Referring to his daughter’s murder, he said:
‘That’s where we are now and, sadly, where we will always be.’A bleak and heart-rending statement of fact that no one, however much they would love to, can contradict.

Police started investigating
17-year-old former Youth Police and Crime Commissioner Paris Brown after
discovering she used a racial slur in her Twitter profile.Miss
Brown resigned last week after The Mail on Sunday revealed she used her
personal Twitter account to make a series of offensive, racist and
anti-gay posts. Kent Police are understood to be looking at tweets where
Miss Brown uses the word ‘n*****’ – an offensive term for black people –
in alternative spellings. The
force also confirmed it has received more than 50 complaints but is yet
to decide whether Miss Brown has committed any offence.Her
account, where she posted or circulated more than 4,000 messages, was
deleted last Saturday after this newspaper asked her to explain messages
referring to drug use, underage drinking and threats of violence. Just
hours after The Mail on Sunday revealed the foul-mouthed rants, Miss
Brown’s boss, Ann Barnes, attempted to defuse the outrage by falsely
claiming the messages were up to three years old. Yet the posts were
made just weeks before she accepted her high-profile role.Despite
this, Mrs Barnes insisted: ‘Paris turned 17 on Thursday last week and
she has been active on Twitter since she was 14. Therefore, I am correct
in saying that any and all tweets she will have made will have been
between the ages of 14 and 16.’

More...

'New police chiefs are a wilful waste of money' said boss of youth tsar... before taking £85k job

On March 7 this year, Miss Brown tweeted: ‘I really wanna make a batch of hash brownies.’And
on February 17, she revealed: ‘im either really fun, friendly and
inclusive when im drunk or im an anti social, racist, sexist,
embarrassing a******.’

Upset: Paris Brown, 17, in tears as she apologises for posting a
series of offensive posts on Twitter, resigned as Britain's first
youth police and crime commissioner

A day earlier she seemingly
criticised foreign workers at a pizza business by writing: ‘i can speak
f***ing english its the illegals on the other end that cant.’ In
another post, on February 7, Miss Brown railed: ‘Oh my God will you
pikeys stop nicking the f***ing train track metal im on a f***ing
replacement bus, f***ing stupid moronic *****.’On
January 24, she commented on her ten-year-old brother attacking a pupil
at his school and said: ‘I don’t condone violence but im so pleased
that my brother thumped the fat little ****.’

More trouble ahead: Ann Barnes is facing calls to quit after losing the confidence of her officers

And on December 21 last year
Miss Brown posted: ‘Been drinking since half 1 and riding baby walkers
down the hall at work oh my god i have the best job ever haha!!’ Miss
Brown later claimed she had been referring to drinking water as part of
a diet. Kent Police
said: ‘We will investigate all complaints thoroughly, but cannot comment
further on the progress of a live investigation.’More
than 200 police officers in England have been investigated in the past
three years for posting potentially offensive messages – 148 of them
were disciplined and several were sacked. The figures were revealed at
the end of a week in which a sergeant resigned after gloating about
Margaret Thatcher’s death online.

Justice secretary Chris Grayling has
banned prisoners from watching 18-rated DVDs as part of his plan to turn
jails into ‘no-frills’ institutions.Violent
and sexually explicit movies will be removed from prison libraries and
inmates will no longer be able to receive them from visitors. Any such
material found in cells will in future be confiscated.Computer and video games for over-18s were banned in prisons several months ago and now the Government has widened the net.

Chris Grayling says he wants prisons to be 'spartan' places which people do not want to return to

It comes after Mr Grayling, who took
up his current post last September, told The Mail on Sunday that he
wanted prisons to be ‘spartan but humane’ places to which people had ‘no
particular desire’ to return.

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In an interview two months ago,
he announced plans for a ban on Sky TV, a reduction in the number of
televisions in jails and less pocket money for inmates.Mr
Grayling said he did not approve of prisons buying state-of-the-art
entertainment systems which were out of the price range of many
law-abiding people.

Mr Grayling said he did not approve of prisons buying state-of-the-art entertainment systems

Prison governors were informed of the
latest restriction in a message from Nigel Mulcaster, a senior civil
servant at the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which is
run by the Ministry of Justice.Mr
Mulcaster referred to the ‘often violent and sexual nature’ of
18-certificate films and added: ‘Prisoners will no longer be able to
possess or view 18-rated DVDs within any prison.’But the move has already been criticised by some inmates.One
man behind bars at Stafford Prison told prisoners’ newspaper
Insidetime: ‘Where is the logic in stopping a prisoner from buying an
18-rated DVD when he can watch 18-rated films and programmes every night
on his television?’But Mr Grayling insisted last night that his review of privileges would continue. ‘I want to ensure the public can be confident in a justice system that properly punishes as well as reforms,’ he said.

Former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell is
demanding an apology from Theresa May after privately accusing the Home
Secretary of masterminding his exit from Government over ‘Plebgate’. He
is convinced he lost his job last autumn because of a police conspiracy
– and that Mrs May was instrumental in turning the Cabinet against him
when his fate hung in the balance.

And he also believes she let her view that his position had become untenable become known to the media.

Former Chief whip Andrew Mitchell (right) wants a
personal apology from Theresa May (left) because he believes she turned
Cabinet members against him during the 'Plebgate' row

Mr Mitchell has admitted
swearing when asked to take his bicycle through a side gate at Downing
Street last September, but has always insisted police fabricated claims
that he called them ‘f****** plebs’.

He
resigned in October after a police log, which appeared to corroborate
the officers’ account, was leaked. Scotland Yard is investigating his
claim that the allegations were concocted. Preliminary findings are
expected to be released within days.

Mr
Mitchell wants Mrs May to personally apologise for ‘prejudging’ him. He
believes she told colleagues he should not remain in his job because
his continued presence was damaging the Government. He claims to have
proof she briefed journalists to that effect.

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of Thatcher's loyal press aide as he damns 'conniving' funeral security
chief who said 'It is not our job to uphold respect'

Extra
police called in to monitor anti-Thatcher 'celebrations' in Trafalgar
Square as hundreds of protesters gather despite wet weather

When Mrs May was asked at the
time whether she had been in the ‘vanguard’ of efforts to force him to
step down, she said: ‘I’m not going to talk about private
conversations.’

A
friend of Mr Mitchell said last night: ‘There are many at Westminster
who feel it would be nice if those who got it so wrong were to
acknowledge that.’ A spokeswoman for Mrs May declined to comment.

Mr
Mitchell, who is supported by powerful figures including former party
leader Michael Howard and ex-Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, is
confident a prosecution review of evidence gathered by Operation Alice,
the Scotland Yard investigation into claims of police fabrication, will
back his version of events.

Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell is confident a
prosecution review of the evidence in the 'Plebgate' row will back his
version of events

A Channel 4
investigation cast doubt on the initial police account when it revealed
that CCTV footage showed there was not a large group of tourists outside
the gate during the row, as was originally claimed. And an email
supposedly from a witness backing up the police account of events has
also been called into question.

Earlier
this month The Mail on Sunday disclosed that Mr Mitchell had written to
Deborah Glass, deputy chairman of the Independent Police Complaints
Commission, to accuse police of a sustained ‘dishonest and illicit’
campaign to destroy him, including the leaking of information to the
press that suggested the inquiry would dismiss his claims.

It
will be announced tomorrow that Mr Mitchell, a former International
Development Secretary, will join the board of a charity that aims to
build on the legacy of the London Olympics.

International
Inspiration, chaired by Lord Coe, uses sporting ambassadors, including
Tanni Grey-Thompson and Chris Hoy, to help 15 million disadvantaged
children around the world.